Postoperative urinary infections caused by Escherichia coli

SYNOPSIS Serological and biochemical classification of Esch. coli from the rectum and vagina of patients who developed a urinary infection after operation and the insertion of a self-retaining catheter showed that 13/20 urinary infections were caused by a type which had been present before operation in the rectum, vagina, or both. In a study of the effects of the indwelling urinary catheter after gynaecological operations, Chamber-lain, Dulake, and Kidd (1968) showed that 39 % of patients who had previously been free of infection developed infections of the urinary tract within 12 days of operation. The three groups of organisms most commonly implicated were Escherichia coli, Proteus spp, and enterococci. The origin of these infections is a matter of some interest and with this end in view we studied in detail 20 strains of Esch. coli derived from the urine of patients who had had indwelling catheters and compared them with the strains which had been present in the rectum and vagina before operation. Methods and Materials The operations were performed at King's Colleg